The Case of the Missing Link (part 1)

By Rex Banks

When Sir Fred Hoyle recently suggested to scientists at London’s Royal Institution, that life on earth may have been spawned by intelligent beings in another part of the Universe, his startling suggestion drew attention once again to the inadequacies of the theory of evolution as an explanation for the origin of life on earth. While rejecting a religious explanation, Hoyle stated: “Biomaterials, with their amazing measure of order must be the outcome of intelligent designs.” He also pointed to gaps in the fossil evidence used to support the theory of evolution, and suggested that these gaps may indicate periods of very rapid change. Along with other leading scientists, Hoyle recognises that the systemic gaps in the fossil record must be explained in some way.

TRANSITIONAL FORMS

Dr Gary E. Parker wrote concerning the creation/evolution dialogue: “The evolutionist, of course, expected to find fossils that showed stages through which one kind of animal or plant changed into a different kind. According to evolution, the boundaries between kinds should blur as we look back at their fossil history. It should get more difficult, for example, to tell cats from dogs, and then mammals from reptiles, land animals from water animals, and finally, life from non-life” (“Creation – The Facts of Life,” p. 89). However, the fossil record stubbornly refuses to provide evidence of the transitional or in-between forms. Look at some of the evolutionists’ greatest headaches.

A: INVERTEBRATES AND THEIR ANCESTORS

The appearance of complex marine invertebrates in the early Cambrian rock (supposedly some 600 million years old) poses a problem for the evolutionists, as two of them explain. ”Their [the organisms] high degree of organization clearly indicates that a long period of evolution preceded their appearance in the record. However, when we turn to examine the pre-Cambrian rocks for the forerunners of these early Cambrian fossils, they are nowhere to be found” (McKay and Edwin Colbert, quoted in “Scientific Creationism”, p. 81 – by Henry M Morris).

This case despite the fact that sections of sedimentary rock suitable for the preservation of fossils lie in unbroken succession below strata containing the earliest Cambrian fossils. The evolutionary ancestors of the Cambrian invertebrates are simply not to be found, although evolutionists estimate that 1-2 billion years was required for their evolution from the single-celled micro-organisms which (allegedly) have been found in the pre-Cambrian age.

B. FROM INVERTEBRATES TO VERTEBRATES

Literally billions of animals must have been involved in the evolutionary transition from invertebrates (soft inner parts and hard outer shells) to vertebrates (soft outer parts and a skeleton). The “earliest” vertebrates are certain orders of fish, the Osteostraci and Heterostraci.

Concerning the evolution from invertebrate to vertebrate, Duane T. Gish wrote: “Does the fossil record provide evidence for such a transition? Not at all!” Ommanay has thus stated: “How this earliest chordate stock evolved, and what stages of development it went through to eventually give rise to truly fish-like creatures, we do not know. Between the Cambrian, when it probably originated, and the Ordovician, when the first fossils of animals with really fish-like characteristics appeared, there is a gap of perhaps 100 million years which we will probably never be able to fill.”

Incredible! 100 million years of evolution and no fossilized transitional forms! “All the hypotheses combined, no matter how ingenious, and could never pretend, on the basis of the evolution theory to account for a gap of such magnitude.” (“Evolution – The Fossils Say No!” p. 71 – by Duane T Gish).